Legal summary
September 2024
Tsaava and Others v. Georgia (referral) - 13186/20, 16757/20, 20129/21 et al.
Judgment 7.5.2024 [Section V]
Article 3
Degrading treatment
Inhuman punishment
Effective investigation
Alleged use of excessive police force resulting in injury of demonstrators and journalists during dispersal of demonstration in front of Parliament; alleged ineffective ongoing criminal investigation: case referred to the Grand Chamber
Article 10
Article 10-1
Freedom of expression
Alleged use of excessive police force resulting in injury of demonstrators and journalists during the dispersal of demonstration in front of the Parliament: case referred to the Grand Chamber
Article 11
Article 11-1
Freedom of peaceful assembly
Alleged use of excessive police force resulting in injury of demonstrators and journalists during the dispersal of demonstration in front of Parliament: case referred to the Grand Chamber
Article 13
Effective remedy
Alleged lack of effective remedies in relation to alleged use of excessive police force resulting in injury of demonstrators and journalists during the dispersal of demonstration in front of Parliament: case referred to the Grand Chamber
Article 38
Obligation to furnish all necessary facilities
Alleged use of excessive police force resulting in injury of demonstrators and journalists during the dispersal of demonstration in front of Parliament: case referred to the Grand Chamber
The case concerns the dispersal of a large-scale demonstration in June 2019 from the front of the Parliament building in Tbilisi. The protest was sparked by a prominent member of the Russian Duma’s sitting in the Speaker’s chair in the Georgian Parliament and delivering a speech in Russian as part of a session of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy. The applicants were either demonstrators or journalists injured during the dispersal from the allegedly excessive use of force by the police – predominantly when firing rubber bullets and in some cases when using physical force.
In a judgment delivered on 7 May 2024 a Chamber of the Court found, unanimously, a violation of the procedural aspect of Article 3 in respect of 24 applicants. It refrained, by six votes to one, from taking a decision regarding the merits of the substantive aspect of Article 3. In that connection, emphasising the importance of the principles of subsidiarity and shared responsibility, it held that there was a need for further elucidation of factual elements at domestic level and that the capacity of the investigation to assess the circumstances of the case and draw appropriate conclusions had not been irretrievably undermined. It was thus firstly for the domestic authorities, rather than for the Court, to properly evaluate the evidential material already gathered. The Court also refrained, by six votes to one, from taking a decision regarding the admissibility and merits of the complaints under Article 10 and Article 11 on similar grounds.
The Chamber indicated individual measures under Article 46 in relation to the ongoing investigation.
The case was referred to the Grand Chamber on 23 September 2024 at the applicants’ request.
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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